77. 'And, unless it pleases you to relieve him of his pain (yourselves), pray his best friend, for the honour of his nobility, that he may attain to some better estate.'
The assigning of this petition to Fortune is a happy expedient. The poet thus escapes making a direct appeal in his own person.
XI. Merciless Beauty.
The title 'Mercilesse Beaute' is given in the Index to the Pepys MS. As it is a fitting title, and no other has been suggested, it is best to use it.
I think this Roundel was suggested by one written in French, in the thirteenth century, by Willamme d'Amiens, and printed in Bartsch, Chrestomathie de l'ancien Français. It begins—
'Jamais ne serai saous
D'esguarder les vairs ieus dous
Qui m'ont ocis';—
i. e. I shall never be sated with gazing on the gray soft eyes which have slain me.